CMO jobs are at risk if customer experience strategies don’t succeed and, in particular, if customer engagement doesn’t satisfy digitally demanding consumers, according to a new CMO Council report.

The report, The State of Engagement: Bridging the Customer Journey Across Every Last Mile, examines the hurdles that all marketers are facing, from operational functions up to the CMO, to deliver value across every last mile of engagement.

According to the report, 75 per cent of CMOs believe their jobs are on the line if their customer experience strategies are unsuccessful. Moreover, nearly half of marketing respondents believe it is possible their jobs will be at risk should technology investments fail, even though there are other factors that have a direct impact on the role.

And while businesses will measure the success of customer experience initiatives on bottom-line improvements - including overall revenue growth and increases in individual sales - only 10 per cent of marketers are able to tie customer experiences back to these business goals in real-time, the report reveals.

“CMOs have picked up the mantle of owning the development and execution of the customer experience strategy and are fully aware that their jobs depend on the success of these initiatives,” CMO Council senior vice-president of marketing, Liz Miller, said.

The study, in partnership with RedPoint Global, looks at how the imperative to compete on the basis of customer experience is heightening the job security risks of CMOs who are struggling to keep up with new digitally driven ways to engage, satisfy and enrich the experience of more mobile, savvy and fickle consumers.

Eight in 10 respondents said they're are unable to or can only sometimes connect channels of engagement back to business impact while an additional 10 per cent are only able to measure against business goals using time-consuming, manual processes that only involve select channels.

According to the findings, marketers have a mixed view of the state of customer engagement as 47 per cent admit they are failing to deliver on the customer expectation of personalisation and contextual engagements across the customer journey. Additionally, 41 per cent say systems that fail to connect or deliver a unified view of the customer experience across all touchpoints have done the most to threaten the execution of the CX strategy.

Miller said many CMOs are “rightfully questioning” the patchwork assembly of point solutions that have been amassed in the marketing technology stack.

“Marketers want to get going…connecting systems and busting silos to put the customer’s expectations above the drama being caused by fragmented tools that fail to deliver results for the business,” she said.

The report also reveals how many CMOs have adopted a new outlook of advancing with the tools on hand - while at the same time taking on the role of the ‘chief silo-buster’ - in light of the increasing demand for individualised experiences from a connected customer.

Findings also show that marketers believe they need systems that leverage real-time data to deliver relevant, contextual experiences, ranking this as the No. 1 requirement for customer experience success.

Meanwhile, the second most critical requirement is an organization-wide single view of the customer to ensure uniform and consistent engagement.

Most marketing theory was established in the context of stable employment relationships. From front-line staff to marketing strategists and brand managers, employees generally enjoyed job security with classic benefits such as superannuation plans, stable income streams, employment rights, training, sabbaticals and long-service leave.

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